Broadband Users Oppose Bandwidth Caps

News Analysis Light Reading 9/30/2008

Broadband users are overwhelmingly against the idea of bandwidth caps, but might be interested in paying for guaranteed quality of service (QOS) for some applications, according to a new survey.

The survey, which was conducted by research firm IDC on behalf of Zeugma Systems Inc. , found that 81 percent of broadband users were against the idea of bandwidth caps, and more than 50 percent said they would attempt to change service providers if bandwidth caps were initiated by their ISP.

Read on at Contentinople.

— Ryan Lawler, Contentinople

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DCITDave 12/5/2012 | 3:30:40 PM

re: Broadband Users Oppose Bandwidth Caps Duh!

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Duh! 12/5/2012 | 3:30:39 PM

re: Broadband Users Oppose Bandwidth Caps You rang?

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DCITDave 12/5/2012 | 3:30:36 PM

re: Broadband Users Oppose Bandwidth Caps Just wanted to say Hi.

Hi Duh!

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K28.5 12/5/2012 | 3:30:32 PM

re: Broadband Users Oppose Bandwidth Caps With such surveys itGÇÖs very easy to get the response you wanted in the first place, by carefully wording the questions. For example, GÇ£Many service providers are contemplating capping and metering bandwidth usage, how do you feel?GÇ¥ What do you expect people to say, that they are happy with it?

Moreover, according to the survey, people do not know how metering is done, nor how much do they use. I bet that people also does not know that what they get today is only best effort service, even if they are promised 10Mbps (itGÇÖs always GÇ£up toGÇ¥, right?). So the survey is based on ignorance and leading questions. Very useful as an ad for Zeugma, not as a working tool for service providers, or anyone else.

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Pete Baldwin 12/5/2012 | 3:30:31 PM

re: Broadband Users Oppose Bandwidth Caps Agreed 100%. To be fair, the Zeugma guys willingly conceded this point when I talked to them, and noted the gigabyte question as evidence that most users didn't fully understand everything that was being asked.

If you were to ask the question from the extreme opposite POV: "Would you want your ISP to prevent your neighbor from slowing down your Internet connection?" -- you'd certainly get a different answer.

Zeugma is trying to use the survey to suggest that operators find more creative answers than a bandwidth cap. For example, they could offer a cap but have only certain services count towards it ... maybe P2P uploading gets counted, but video streaming doesn't, e.g. Of course, that's the kind of application Zeugma envisions the ZSN being capable of.

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